


The Other Story

by sevenall



Series: Deadshot AU [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Deadshot AU, Mercy Street AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2018-06-03 18:50:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6622246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenall/pseuds/sevenall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is another story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Other Story

This is another story. This is the story where a driver ran a red light and plowed into a school bus the same evening Unohana Retsu started her ER rotation. None of the children died, though some of them sustained permanent injuries. Most of them would never remember the crash. But this story isn't about them.

Though this is another story, it begins the same way. Once upon a time, though hardly for the first time, Takiko Ise had an argument with her ten-year-old daughter Nanao and slapped her face for disrespect. She locked Nanao in her room, then left for work without waiting for the sitter.

Nanao, being resourceful and athletic, used the fire escape and the ivy to climb back into the apartment. She took a change of clothes, all the cash she could find (not much) and her mother's VISA, kept for emergencies and then she ran away. Well, she didn't run, exactly. She meant to go across town to see Retsu and she didn't know how much the bus fare would be, hence the money. She wanted to ask if she could spend the night, hence the clothes.

This is the story where she left the apartment just before the phone started ringing. It was Retsu, saying that she'd be late, but she'd be there. Or Takiko, saying she was sorry. Either way, Nanao heard it or she didn't, but what she didn't do was to turn back.

This is the story where Retsu got a ride to Takiko's place or else, Nanao would certainly have met her on the bus or at the bus terminal where either of them waited thirty minutes for her connection. Retsu waved goodbye and thank you to her colleague, before looking into her purse and realizing she had forgotten the keys. Walking over to the Hanaya and back took another hour. Another hour before anyone realised Nanao was gone.

In the meantime, Nanao stood in the foyer of Retsu 's apartment building, ringing the bell over and over again. Retsu had said, come to me first. Retsu had said, Na-chan, you can always come to me. Though Nanao would never admit it, this is the story where she broke down and cried, let me in, let me in. Please, Retsu-nee, you promised, let me in.

She could have gone back, she still had enough for the fare, or she could have waited. Most children would have. Nanao would have, almost certainly, but this is the story where something deep inside her fractured and she didn't. Another tenant turned her out of the foyer and told her to go home. Home? She didn't know where that was, anymore, but she went.

This might be the story, but I'm not sure, where she slept under the bridges with the other streetkids. Maybe she pan-handled or found herself a street corner where she could sing for change. Let's say that all she did was sing.

It's not the story, though it could easily have been, where the police found her and dragged her home or where they found her and put her in the morgue. Though a young man with dark, curly hair might have noticed her singing in a sweet schoolgirl soprano, and given her a ten dollar bill, he turned left before her corner and walked on. He didn't offer her breakfast at Roxy's or a visit to the Minazuki Clinic to treat her frostbitten fingers. And she never made it all the way down to the river.

Only one thing is certain: this is the story where Sousuke Aizen decided to go for a late evening drive. When he saw the child on the sidewalk, he slowed down and opened the passenger door.

FIN


End file.
